Liberians on Staten Island fear deportation under expiring status

Advance file photoIn 2007, Liberians held a vigil to protest the deportation of members in their community. The issue is on-going, as the special immigration status of an estimated 800 to 1,000 Liberians on Staten Island - and up to 14,000 nationwide - is set to expire at the end of the month.

STATEN ISLAND, NY - EAST SHORE -- Hundreds of Liberians living on Staten Island will face deportation unless President Barack Obama steps in this month to extend their stay.

The special immigration status of an estimated 800 to 1,000 Liberians on Staten Island - and up to 14,000 nationwide - is set to expire at the end of the month.

"To ask Liberians to leave after 20 years of legally residing in the U.S. would mean uprooting families, interrupting careers, and abandoning homes and businesses," local advocates have written in letters addressed to Obama and Rep. Michael McMahon. "(The capital city of) Monrovia is unprepared to peacefully host a large influx of Liberians coming from the U.S. at this time."

Advocates hope to gather 2,500 Staten Island signatures.

Cheryl Nadeau, a nurse practitioner who volunteers regularly at the African Refuge resource center in the Park Hill section of Clifton, will lobby on behalf of the Global Health Council in Washington, D.C., tomorrow, urging Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), also to back a deferral for Liberians living in the United States under "Temporary Protected Status" (TPS).

"There are not enough resources in Liberia for the country to absorb the refugees," said Ms. Nadeau. "The deportations could rip the country into another civil war."

Former Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush previously intervened to extend the deadline for Liberians who were granted special status after entering the United States on visitors' visas to escape a brutal civil war that killed an estimated 200,000 people.

"Many people don't have homes to go back to," said Liberian refugee Amelia Woods. "Their homes were destroyed under rocket fire during the war . . . Many people (living in Clifton on TPS status) are worried about their status, they're getting sick over it. It's like the sword of Damocles hanging over their head. We're begging (the government) for mercy."

Ms. Woods, like thousands of refugees in her community, carries with her nightmarish memories of the war: Pregnant women ripped open at the belly, swollen hungry, babies trying to suckle from dead mothers.

War ended in Liberia in 2003, but the country has yet to rebuild its devastated infrastructure, and it currently reports an unemployment rate of about 85 percent.

Advocates for extending the Deferred Enforced Departure (DED) status, including Liberia's Charles Brumskine of the Liberty Party, say also that the residents of the war-torn West African country rely on millions of dollars remitted by relatives living abroad.

Rep. McMahon, who supports the extension, wrote to Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano last month asking her to implement DED procedures for Liberians who have been living in the United States under TPS status continuously since Oct. 1, 2002.

"These individuals have not only managed to cope with tremendous suffering as a community following the brutal Charles Taylor regime, but have also added to the culture, economy and identity of my district," the congressman wrote to Napolitano. "Many of the Liberians who arrived to Staten Island from war-torn Liberia in the 1990s now own flourishing businesses, raise American children and have become an integral part of Staten Island and of the United States."

"It's very frustrating not knowing," said Annie Gibson of Clifton, a Liberian on TPS status whose fate is in Washington's hands.

Collaborating in the effort to petition Congress and President Obama for a stay that would require an executive order are: The Staten Island Liberian Community Association (SILCA), African Refuge, Roza Promotions, the New York City Commission on Human Rights, the Staten Island Immigrants Council and the New York Immigration Coalition.